Many motor vehicle accidents are from rear end collisions which could have been avoided if the driver of the following vehicle received an advanced warning as to the sudden slowing, stopping or acceleration of the vehicle in front. All modern vehicles are equipped with brake lights and blinking turning signals, both of which are intended to inform the drivers of vehicles following behind and/or the drivers of oncoming vehicles that the vehicle in front is either stopping or turning. Unfortunately, such limited information does not fully inform the following or oncoming drivers as to the status of the vehicle in front. For example, the brake light merely indicates to the operator of the following vehicle that the driver of the leading vehicle has depressed the brake pedal. No further information beyond sudden hard braking is provided as to the rate of decrease in speed of the leading vehicle. The result is that the driver of the following vehicle must utilize other external cues to assess the speed of the leading vehicle. Such external cues may include whether the cars in front of the leading vehicle have their brake lights on, and the rate of decrease in the gap between the leading vehicle and the following vehicle.
Accordingly, the leading vehicle's decreasing speed is difficult to judge by the operator of the following vehicle solely from the brake light. Furthermore, reliance and utilization of the external cues and the accuracy with which the driver of the following vehicles can interpret these cues is subject to external influencing factors such as weather conditions, the operator's driving experience, and other distractions in the surrounding environment.
Conventional vehicle warning systems are linked to the brake pedal and attempt to provide a warning light indicating a decrease in vehicle speed once the brake pedal is depressed. The disadvantage is that the time period between the time the user removes his or her foot from the acceleration pedal to the time the brake pedal is depressed is lost. As such, conventional systems do not provide an instantaneous indication of changes in vehicle speed but merely an indication that the operator of the leading vehicle is deploying the brake pedal. That is, conventional warning systems are only activated by a change in vehicle speed produced by deployment of the brake pedal and do not provide an advanced warning before braking. Conventional warning systems do not account for changes in vehicle speed that are produced other than by deployment of the brake pedal, as for example reduction in vehicle speed produced by removal of the user's foot from the acceleration pedal during coasting. Furthermore, conventional vehicle warning systems do not provide an indication of an increase in vehicle speed such as when the vehicle is accelerating, as for example driving against strong wind, up-hills, climbing, etc.
Conventional vehicle warning systems provide even more limited information to drivers of oncoming vehicles. The vehicle turning signal merely indicates that at some point the driver of the vehicle in front had an intention to turn but does not indicate if that intention is still present or if the driver of the vehicle in front has merely forgotten the turning light on. Accordingly, driver's of oncoming vehicles are often guessing at the intention of the approaching vehicle.